Sunday, March 1, 1998Last modified at 4:36 a.m. on Sunday, March 1, 1998

Neighbor suspect in girl's death

Morris News Service

More than 500 people helped look for Shawnlee Perry in the hours after the 5-year-old girl disappeared from her back yard in Earth on May 7, 1992.

Eddie Rowton, a neighbor with a criminal background, was among the searchers.

"It was late at night, after dark," said former Lamb County Sheriff's Deputy Tracy Bridges, who helped organize the effort.

"He came up directly to me and said, `What's going on?' I told him the little girl across the street was missing."

Rowton told Bridges he had not seen the girl, and asked for a flier bearing her picture. "Where do you want me to look?" he asked Bridges.

About a week later, Rowton was arrested on charges he raped and beat a New Mexico woman in nearby Bailey County. He was convicted and sentenced to 35 years in state prison, where he remains.

Last week, investigators said Rowton is the prime suspect in the death of Shawnlee, whose body was found in August 1992 in a field about five miles from her home.

Rowton, 44, will be named in an arrest warrant charging him with capital murder, according to Lamb County District Attorney Mark Yarbrough. The case is expected to go to a grand jury next month.

Bridges has kept his own file on the Perry case, although he left Lamb County in December 1992 and has been out of law enforcement since last year. Bridges said Rowton has always been a suspect.

Bridges said he began asking about Rowton's whereabouts within hours after realizing the Perry girl was missing. "We checked on Eddie because he was on parole. We beat on his door; he didn't answer."

Bridges said he soon learned a neighbor had helped Rowton into his home earlier that afternoon, a few hours before the girl was reported missing. The neighbor said Rowton was "drunk as a skunk. He had to support him to help get him in the house," Bridges said.

Because of that report, and because authorities did not immediately know if the girl had been taken or simply wandered away, Bridges said authorities made no further attempt to question Rowton that day.

Several Earth residents said Rowton was a drifter who worked mostly as a farmhand at various places during his short stay in the community.

"The impressions that I formed, he was pretty much a loner," said Bailey County Sheriff's Deputy Benny Clifton, who investigated the Bailey County rape.

Clifton and Bridges said that although Rowton has a long criminal history, it does not involve crimes against children.